advanced reading copy of ADOPTING GRACE
13 of 186

Chapter 1 – Repeater Days “Wont to unlearn from history, we aptly repeat even its most brazen mistakes.” Eskinder Nega “Now it might be that your God is an uptight, judgmental perfectionist…But a priest friend of mine has cautioned me away from the standard God of our childhoods, who loves and guides you and then, if you are bad, roasts you: God as high school principal in a gray suit who never remembered your name but is always leafing unhappily through your files. If this is your God, maybe you need to blend in the influence of someone who is ever so slightly more amused by you, someone less anal.” Anne Lamott I have heard it said that those of us who become parents choose one of three pathways. We repeat the parenting practice of our own parents. We totally rebel against the way in which we were raised. Or healthiest of all, we intentionally consider what we desire to keep from our parents’ ways and what we want to change. The path chosen informs values taught, faith expression passed along, and hundreds of daily decisions that affect our children. Unless we choose the third pathway, we mostly roll along living, as well as parenting, from an unconscious place. As I entered into the early days of being a mom, I was most often a repeater. ADOPTING GRACE ADVANCED READING COPY 13